With families bringing second and third personal computers (hereinafter PCs) into their homes, a method for the computer users in these homes to effectively utilize and share all of their computing resources is becoming increasingly desirable. Home networking is one such solution, and it avails the family members with the following services, but without limitation, printer sharing, simultaneous Internet Access, file sharing, multi-player gaming, etc.
Many home networking technologies exist today, and a number of the technologies seek to take advantage of the readily available infrastructure in a home. For instance, the new Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (hereinafter HomePNA) 2.0 specification, published in December of 1999, enables 10 Mbps networking using a home's existing phone lines and conventional RJ-11 phone jacks. Additionally, open specifications ratified by the HomeRF™ (Radio Frequency) Working Groups utilize 2.4-GHz frequency-hopping technology to enable a wireless home network.
Despite the advantages and the convenience that the aforementioned home networking technologies bring to a home, there lacks a cost-effective mechanism for these technologies to interoperate with one another. FIG. 1 illustrates one prior art configuration that deploys HomePNA and HomeRF technologies. Specifically, primary PC 100 accesses the Internet through its Internet access point 102. Internet access point 102 can be, but not limited to, a cable modem, a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a dial-up modem, etc. Then primary PC 100 communicates with second PC 112 via HomePNA Network Interface Card (hereinafter NIC) 106 and HomePNA NIC 110, respectively. Similarly, primary PC 100 communicates with third PC 116 via HomeRF NIC 108 and HomeRF 114, respectively.
Assuming the communications among the NICs are based on Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (hereinafter TCP/IP), difficulties arise when the operating system on primary PC 100 does not support sharing one network prefix for HomePNA NIC 106 and HomeRF NIC 108. As a result, in order for primary PC 100 to communicate with second PC 112 and third PC 116 directly, HomePNA NIC 106 and HomePNA NIC 110 would be configured to share one network prefix, and HomeRF NIC 108 and HomeRF NIC 114 would be configured to share another. With this configuration, however, second PC 112 cannot communicate with third PC 116 directly. In other words, network packets originated from HomePNA NIC 110 would most likely only reach HomeRF NIC 114 through a router that shares the same network prefix as HomeRF NIC 114.
Furthermore, even though bridging technology exists today to allow communication between one type of network with another, such technology is often embodied in a standalone apparatus. Not only is modifying a hardware bridge to accommodate new technologies or specifications nontrivial, but a hardware bridge is also more costly than a software solution that utilizes available PC resources.
Therefore, a method and apparatus is needed to overcome the described operating system limitations and to enable integration between two or more different networking technologies cost effectively.